Sphera Franchise Group delivered the best sales quarter in history in Q2 2022

Sphera Franchise Group delivered the best sales quarter in history in Q2 2022, with revenues amounting to RON 327.4 million, a 40 percent increase compared to Q2 2021. All three brands – KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell – registered record sales across all markets – Romania, Italy and the Republic of Moldova – in a rapid ramp-up following the lifting of the COVID-19 restrictions.

The significant increase versus previous quarter was due to three major factors. Firstly, lifting of indoor dining restrictions and eliminating the Covid certificate entry requirements across Romania, Italy, and the Republic of Moldova, leading to an increase in transactions overall. Secondly, the contribution of the stores opened in the preceding 12 months and, thirdly, continuing the strategy to build our loved and trusted brands.

“The second quarter of 2022 was excellent for Sphera. We registered double-digit increases for all brands, in all markets, with total revenues 40 percent higher compared to the same quarter of 2021. More importantly, with the lifting of pandemic restrictions, we have achieved the highest share of own sales channels since the onset of the pandemic, as 81 percent of all orders in Q2 were delivered in our restaurants or using our own delivery capacity, which allows us to retain a larger part of the sales margin. We are glad that we continued investing in growing our restaurant network in Romania and Italy over the last two years, bringing our iconic brands closer to our customers, because the results of this decision are starting to bring results,” said Călin Ionescu, CEO, Sphera Franchise Group.

The Group ended Q2 2022 with a positive result, registering EBITDA of RON 17.5 million (1 percent increase compared to Q2 2021) and a net profit of RON 2.2 million (a 54 percent decrease compared to Q2 2021). The decrease in net profit in Q2 2022 was due to the inflationary pressures on the cost side, growing energy prices resulting from the war in Ukraine, and a less favourable context than in Q2 2021, which helped lift the bottom line (i.e., government facilities such as technical unemployment or renegotiations opportunities for rental costs). However, Q2 2022 net profit has registered a substantial increase of RON 13.1 million vs. Q1 2022.

The like-for-like sales in Q2 2022 grew by 32 percent across Sphera brands. Between 30 June 2021 and 30 June 2022, Sphera opened 14 new restaurants – 13 in Romania and one in Italy. The new locations helped the Group’s performance, with 5 new Pizza Hut locations contributing to the increase by 46 percent of the all-store performance in Q2 2022, the 6 new KFC locations growing YoY by 37 percent and the 2 new Taco Bell locations improving all store performance 39 percent YoY in Q2 2022.

In terms of channels, the sales in restaurants registered a significant increase in Q2 2022 compared to Q1 2022, due to the complete lifting of indoor dining and mall entry restrictions, as well as good weather that historically has driven sales in the second quarter of the year. On the other hand, the sales for delivery declined by 10 percent QoQ in Q2 2022, reaching RON 70.3 million. This channel’s contribution to total sales in the first six months of 2022 was RON 148.4 million, of which 12 percent were delivered using Sphera’s delivery capacity. Sphera has its own delivery service in Romania for KFC and Pizza Hut, while for Taco Bell as well as for KFC in Italy and the Republic of Moldova, the Group delivers exclusively through food aggregating platforms such as Glovo, Tazz, Uber Eats or Bolt.